A recliner chair has a footrest that can move between a retracted position extending vertically and tucked underneath a front edge of the seat cushion and an extended position extending horizontally and positioned in front of and generally level with the seat cushion. The footrest moves into the extended position as other elements of the chair's mechanism tilt the chairs backrest rearwardly and normally also lower a rear end of the seat cushion or raise its front end.
The standard mechanism for shifting the footrest is formed by a pair of horizontally spaced scissor linkages having unequal legs to effect the arcuate and twisting movement of the footrest. These linkages have to be identical and function identically to ensure smooth movement of the footrest.
Not only are these scissor linkages fairly complex so that they add considerably to the cost of the chair, but they present a real danger of pinching the user or the user's clothing. It is critical to keep anything delicate out of contact with the scissor link-ages since they can damage or, at the very least, dirty anything that touches or gets tangled in them.